Holownia – exhibition of works not selected for the 29th Legnica International Jewellery Competition STILL HUMAN?

The hall of the Old Town Hall – Modrzejewska Theatre, Rynek 39

4 May – 20 June, 2021

Opening hours:

Monday - Sunday: 8:00 a.m.- 20:00 p.m.

Holownia is an exhibition of works not selected for the 29th Legnica International Jewellery Competition STILL HUMAN? Its name comes from the traditional and recognizable exhibition space – the Old City Hall.

The cyclical International Jewellery Competition is the leading event of Legnica SILVER Festival, organised by the Gallery of Art in Legnica since 1979. The competition is of a purely artistic nature, favouring the artist's idea and statement on a given theme. The interpretation of the theme and the artistic value of the statement are the basic criteria for qualifying works for the exhibition. The theme of the 29th edition of the competition was: Still Human? Out of 357 works submitted by 186 artists from 35 countries, the jury selected 44 artists for the exhibition.

IDEA:

A holographic Whitney Houston is just setting off on a European tour, and she is not the first pop idol resurrected to perform “live” again... You can plan a holiday in space because in 2027 a hotel on orbit will be available for an exorbitant price of nearly $ 800,000 per day!

A brave new world? Is it really for us?

We, humans, are drowning in depression - in ten years’ time depression will be the most common disease of mankind, although even today only 5% of the population are considered thoroughly healthy. Obesity kills three times as many people as famine, while death from exhaustion happens every second in the world, with half the food produced globally being wasted. In our civilized world, wars, attacks, assaults and massacres still pay off, and two out of five murdered women in the world are killed at home by their partner.

“Today – as the philosopher writes ominously – we can only fear ourselves” 1.

Even theocentrism and the Copernican Revolution have not cured us from selfishness, nor have they taught us humility in the face of nature’s greatness and the power of its elements. Living in a post-human reality shared with humanoid mutants, clones, cyborgs and hybrids, we still refuse to accept the crisis of anthropocentrism.

In an era when machines are smarter than people and it is with them that we spend most of the day, when we irreversibly overgrow with plastic (it is deposited in our bodies and at the bottom of the oceans), when we are able to examine, produce and sell everything, we continue to argue about the humanity of the zygote, the primitive tribes, the coloured races, or finally the urban existence that isolates us from nature and the natural rhythm of day and night, replacing the bonds of neighbourhood with media-communities. We still need bodies, but aesthetic medicine and medical nanotechnologies, body art with Orlan and Stelarc at the forefront, body hacking and virtual reality evidence the fact that we are just crossing this immemorial border. We haven’t got rid of the reptile’s brain, but we have gained a „smartphone thumb”, we haven’t freed ourselves from animal instincts, but we get cybersex and adrenaline... in the cinema chair.

Would the first cloned sheep Dolly or Alba (the fluorescent rabbit by Eduardo Kac) forgive us? And the lions, elephants and whales killed mindlessly on a whim, or dolphins, whom we defined as non-human persons in 2013, but still imprison, abuse and kill? Choosing the concrete jungle, the virtual world, swallowing synthetic dietary supplements, drinking nutritional drinks - are we as human as our ancestors? Turning away from other people and towards ourselves in a selfie gesture – are we still human? Have we conquered the world or have we destroyed it?

Behind all this there are human beings... But are they still human?

Justyna Teodorczyk, 2020

1) Jolanta Brach-Czaina, Błony umysłu, Warsaw, Sic! Publishing House, 2003, p. 123

The exhibition of the 29th Legnica International Jewellery Competition STILL HUMAN? can be seen at the Gallery of Art in Legnica, pl. Katedralny 1, from April 23th till June 20th. Visiting both exhibitions – pieces qualified for the exhibition STILL HUMAN as well as HOLOWNIA – one can confront jurors’ decisions with one’s own opinions.

Sara Martinez Sarró –Spain

We are puppets  puppet, stuffed fabric, silver enamel, iron, 265 x 95 x 28 mm, 23.9 g, 2020

Janjaap Luijt – The Netherlands

Pooh pooh, still human  necklace, paper, bamboo, aluminium, iron, 80 x 75 x 50 mm, 28 g, 2020

 Ela Pavinskiené – Lithuania

Robot  earring, silver, clay, glaze, 20 x 15 mm, 13 g, 2020

Oliver Schwalm – Germany

Looking for your algorithm brooch, silver, plastic, 80 x 80 mm, 90 g, 2018

Paula Castro – Portugal

Fragility  brooch, cotton yarn, pig intestine, silver, fine silver, 200 x 130 x 35 mm, 5.4 g, 2020